Rockville Centre 'Color Wars' Never End

By JOAN SWIRSKY

Published: March 24, 2002

ROCKVILLE CENTRE—
IN an atmosphere more reminiscent of the rah-rah 1950's than this been-there-done-that era, nearly 800 mothers, fathers and siblings filled the South Side High School gym in Rockville Centre last weekend to cheer, stomp, whistle and wave flags as their daughters and sisters -- 300 strong, 150 on each team -- competed in the 86th annual Red and Blue contest.

Red and Blue contests, also known as color wars, may well be throwbacks to the time when Long Island liked Ike and women routinely wore hats and gloves. But the one in Rockville Centre is remarkable in both longevity and scope.

''Red and Blue started when girls weren't allowed to participate in team sports,'' said Megan Healey, a physical education teacher at South Side and a co-director of the two-day contest. ''But even when Title IX came in, in the early 1970's, and gave girls the same opportunities as boys, it continued because everyone loves it so much.''

''The contest is not just for the most popular kids,'' she added. ''It brings out leadership qualities in girls you might not think were natural leaders, and it's good for quiet and shy kids because it brings out another side of them as well.''

Ms. Healey said that all South Side girls, from grades 9 through 12, were eligible; that team members were chosen randomly; and that the two captains, always seniors, were elected by their teammates. The captains select coordinators for each competition: skits, costumes, sets, props, emblems, posters, relays, tumbling, dance (jazz, disco and tap), aerobics, floor hockey, volleyball, a tug of war and songs with friendship, marching and fight themes. Two student treasurers dole out the $1,500 each team gets to pay for supplies (the money comes from ticket sales).

''We watch every penny that's spent,'' Ms. Healey said. ''But the girls create everything, and they eat, drink and live Red and Blue. And their parents are just as into it. They offer their homes and basements and backyards and garages, and they help them with the projects and feed them. You can even see them walking around town wearing a red shirt or a blue shirt.''

Competing for the fourth time, Bridget McDermott, 17, a senior honor student, and two of her friends on the Blue team choreographed the tap dance sequence, high-kicking in a conga line, bedecked in Statue of Liberty costumes. She said the dancers had practiced six days a week for about seven weeks.

Ms. McDermott is the second generation of her family to participate in Red and Blue. Her mother, Maureen McDermott, and her aunt, Mary Pat Rooney, took part as South Side students in the 1970's.

''It sounds corny,'' Ms. McDermott said, ''but it's such a good feeling when everything comes together, and you see the final product and know that the hard work and effort you've put in was all worth it.''

But ''it's not just practice, practice, practice,'' she added. Every Wednesday, Friendship Day, girls on the Blue team wear red shirts ''to show we respect each other,'' she said. And on Color Day every Friday, ''the girls get decked from head to toe in their own color and wear ribbons and necklaces.''

Then there are what Ms. Healey called conspiracies, with opposing team members spying on one another.

''One thing we found out about Red was that their tap costumes would be kings and queens,'' Ms. McDermott said. ''So the Blue girls wore crowns to school to show that we knew.''

Embraced with glee by both sides is the annual ritual of ''whiting'' the opposing team captains' homes, stealthily festooning them with yards of toilet paper.

''They do it so quietly, sometimes at 12 at night, that you don't even know they're there,'' said Mackenzie Kaplan, a 17-year-old senior who was the Blue team's captain this year. ''And then they beep their horns and drive away, and you know. It's not malicious. I thought it was funny, and so did my parents, but some parents don't think it's very funny.''

Walter H. Denton, a physical education teacher at South Side for three decades and the other co-director of the contest, explained that he was not the only male involved. For 20 or more years, eight senior boys -- four on each team, chosen by the team captains -- have participated in the skits and helped build the sets.

''The interest here is gangbusters, and it goes back a long time,'' Mr. Denton said. ''While the kids change every year, the tradition goes on.'' Mr. Denton's son, Christopher, was a participant in 1993, and his wife, Sheila, in 1967.

The contest is beneficial in Mr. Denton's view. ''It's good for friendships, for taking responsibility and for discipline,'' he said. ''And you don't have to be a super athlete or have a great voice to be a part of it.''

Dr. Joseph A. D'Ambrosio, a psychologist who practices in Rockville Centre and Great Neck, agreed. ''What's good about this kind of competition is that it can bring the more unpopular kids to the point of being accepted and recognized,'' he said. ''But when the contest is over, things can go back to the norm, so we have to watch out where the casualties are and why.''

Each night, six panelists judge the contests, and team members' cooperation, attendance and ability to meet deadlines, as rated by the two co-directors, are included in the final tally.

Matt Noland, 18, one of the boys on the Blue team, said that while schools in Baldwin, Wantagh and Hempstead also had Red and Blue contests, ''ours are more competitive because the whole town and all the parents get involved.''

While representatives at the federal and state Departments of Education said there were no databases on special events like the Red and Blue competition, Todd Heimer, a spokesman for Nassau County's division of interscholastic athletics, said, ''A lot of individual high schools run community days, lacrosse jamborees and dance programs.''

Whatever the number of contests, South Side High's Red and Blue competition, begun in 1916, is probably one of the oldest events, and 83-year-old Dorothy Patten Zaiser has attended most of them, from 1924 on. As a South Side student, she participated in Red and Blue from 1932 to 1936, and almost every year ever since, she has played the piano as the teams march in singing ''Dear Old South Side.''

The captain of the Red team, Sage Lipkin, found the competition a positive experience. ''Red and Blue teaches you everything,'' she said. ''It gives you a sense of who you are.''

For the last three years her team has lost, as it did again this year. ''It's heartbreaking to lose after you work so hard,'' she said, ''but you learn to have fun anyway.''

Ms. McDermott, a member of the winning Blue team, agreed. Sort of. ''In the end, it doesn't really matter who wins,'' she said, ''even though one of the best things is winning.''

Photos: At South Side High School, the 86th annual Red and Blue girls' games took place last weekend. The Red team presented a dance routine, above, and won the tug of war, below. But the Blue team was the overall winner, bottom. The competition ''brings out leadership qualities in girls you might not think were natural leaders,'' a co-director said. (Photographs by Phil Marino for The New York Times); Even though the Blue team won, after the games were over, everyone was still friends. ''It's heartbreaking to lose after you work so hard,'' the Red captain said, ''but you learn to have fun anyway.''